Should I go T-Mobile? (Hampton Roads)

jonathonball

jonathonball

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 23, 2005
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I want a Nexus 4, so bad it hurts to even look at my Nexus S 4G. Sadly it looks like Sprint isn't going to get any love on that front.

I'm currently with Sprint and I love it, but I'm no fan boy. It's like AMD vs Intel or AMD/ATI vs nVidia... sure I *LOVE* AMD, but I'm always going to get the one that's going to have the best performance for what I can afford at the time. (Currently using a C2D, i3 ivy, and i7 sandy)

Which brings me to my question... anyone use T-Mobile in the Hampton Roads, Virginia area? How are your speeds and coverage? I live in Virginia Beach and work in Chesapeake. Any feedback appreciated about T-Mo even if you're not from my area. I typically only travel to one of two places (Charleston, SC or Morgantown, WV)
 
Why would you be limited to T-Mobile because you want the Nexus 4? Get it unlocked for $350 and go with Straight Talk for $45/month, uses AT&T's towers.
 
I'm in a similar position. I love Sprint, and I support Sprint's political positions, or that Sprint supports mine. I can't wait for network vision to be completed! Really, I can't wait. I may come back later, but this 1Mps on the average download when I'm supposed to be paying a smartphone fee is ridiculous. I don't have 4G here, but it's coming at end of year. But when will my phone have better in building coverage, oh, it can't. It does not have the 800MHz radio.

That said, it's in building coverage that would make me choose AT&T/Straight Talk over T-Mo. I don't really browse while driving or walking... Or in the park... Seriously folks, not only is it dangerous to do that, sometimes it defeats the point of being outside.
 
entropism said:
Why would you be limited to T-Mobile because you want the Nexus 4? Get it unlocked for $350 and go with Straight Talk for $45/month, uses AT&T's towers.
Click to expand...

I'm still trying to get the taste of AT&T out of my mouth from the last time I was on their service, but I'll look into Straight Talk, thank you.
 
jonathonball said:
I'm still trying to get the taste of AT&T out of my mouth from the last time I was on their service, but I'll look into Straight Talk, thank you.
Click to expand...

Here's what I would do, and it's just me.

Buy the Nexus 4 from the Play Store unlocked. Now you own the phone outright. Port your number to Straight Talk (AT&T sim) unless keeping your number is not important to you. Then, buy THIS.

Swap the sims and compare service in the areas you frequent. Do speed tests as well. Once you've made up your mind. Don't renew the 30-day T-Mobile card.

If AT&T/ST wins, you're out $30 but got the better network for you. If T-Mobile wins, before your $45 airtime from ST ends, have TMO port your number to one of their value plans.

In either case, you essentially paid $75 for one month of service on two providers to test their networks. You're probably paying more than that a month on service anyway. In this scenario, you end up with the better network for you, and you keep your number.
 
Yeah...do the Straight Talk thing.

I just did with my Galaxy Note and love Love LOVE it!!! Got on with the AT&T network and I actually have 4G LTE once I played with the APN a little bit.

Service is excellent EVERYWHERE I've been and the download speeds are excellent (8MB a second!) as well. Everything just works perfectly. No complaints what so ever.

The best part? It's all for $45 a month for unlimited everything. I mean...really...going with a contract service at this point is quite literally retarded. Pay a couple more hundred for a unlocked phone and pay $30-45 for service OR pay a couple hundred less for a phone and thousands more annually for service with a contract?

NO FREAKING BRAINER!!!

STRAIGHT TALK! STRAIGHT TALK! STRAIGHT TALK!

:D
 
Straight talk can be great for some, but for others, beware that unlimited isn't really unlimited. ST has a couple catches in their Terms of Service. For instance, I wanted to be able to stream Pandora, Netflix, or check my Youtube subs through the day as I may be traveling a lot in the near future. But these tasks are in violation of the Straight Talk's service terms and they could cut your service and terminate your SIM card. For those who just want to text, talk, check email, and hit the web once in awhile, ST sounds like a great deal. But those who wish to stream better look elsewhere.
 
You can get away with streaming, so long as you're not habitually going over 100mb/day or 2gb/month. FTR, 100mb a day is a LOT of Pandora streaming (but several YT videos can hit that mark). I believe that Pandora averages about 20-30MB/hour if streamed continuously.
 
Pringals said:
Straight talk can be great for some, but for others, beware that unlimited isn't really unlimited. ST has a couple catches in their Terms of Service. For instance, I wanted to be able to stream Pandora, Netflix, or check my Youtube subs through the day as I may be traveling a lot in the near future. But these tasks are in violation of the Straight Talk's service terms and they could cut your service and terminate your SIM card. For those who just want to text, talk, check email, and hit the web once in awhile, ST sounds like a great deal. But those who wish to stream better look elsewhere.
Click to expand...

T-Mobile Terms and Conditions

Sprint Terms and Conditions

They all say that
 
The difference is that Straight Talk actually actively enforces it, and will terminate contracts. T-Mo, and Sprint will rarely do that unless your excess usage is alot higher, for ST it is if you are much over 2GB (in most cases from what ive read)
 
W.Feather said:
and will terminate contracts.
Click to expand...


No contract to terminate... Semantics, but whatever. :p

That being said the amount of people on ST that actually get terminated are few & far between, and if you probe deep enough you realize they were going WAY over the recommended 2GB "limit".
 
I've been with Sprint also for 8 years now and will be giving Straight Talk a shot when my contract ends later this month. On my commute to downtown Chicago, I average between 0.2 and 0.6mbps. I can barely surf mobile optimized sites. When downtown, I can't even grab a 3G signal. What's the point of the $20 Smartphone fee when I can barely use it?

I've also been getting tons of dropped calls or calls that go directly to voicemail. But I'm not sure if that's due to Sprint, Google Voice, or my ICS Rom (still using the Evo 4G). My data usage for October was only about 350mb, so ST might work out for me. If I can get a consistent 2mb on 3G, I'll be pretty happy.

If ST works well, I'll be moving my wife off our Sprint plan also. Currently paying $175 for 3 lines + corporate discount. One of the lines will be cancelled after end of contract, so $90 for two lines on ST with better reliability sounds pretty attractive to me.
 
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